The Marit Swenson Shining Light Foundation awards a grant for DMG/DIPG research each year. Additionally, the Foundation funds the Marit Mary Swenson Awards for DMG/DIPG Research, given out annually at the Society of Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting and every other year at the Pediatric Society of Neuro-Oncology meeting.
These are the grants and awards that the Foundation has awarded from 2020-2025
2025
March 2025: Renewed our collaboration with the DDRFA/DIPG/DMG Research Funding Alliance. The collaborative grant will be announced later in the year.
2024
October 2024: Dr. Sujatha Venkataraman of the University of Colorado a $12,0000 grant to further her work with CAR-T cells. She has created novel GATED CAR-T cells. These CAR-T cells have shown remarkable success in completely clearing DIPG tumors in mouse models. Our gift will validate our findings and perform essential safety studies.
2023
October 2023: Gave $22,000 to the Koschmann Lab at the University of Michigan. Dr. Karl Koschmann and his research team use precision medicine to study how DMG/DIPG mutations can be therapeutically targeted. The grant money will specifically support the lab research of Dana Messinger, Ph.D. student, who is working on the interaction between the H3K27M and ATRX mutations.
May 2023: In collaboration with the DDRFA DIPG/DMG Research Funding Alliance, the Shining Light Foundation gave $5,000 to Dr. Javed Nazarian and Mr. Sean Mizoguchi of Children's National for work accelerating in vivo studies of effective combinational therapies for DMG/DIPG.
2022
October 2022: $10,000 grant to the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health for the GD2 CAR T Cell Therapy for H3K27M-mutated diffuse midline glioma trial. Dr. Michelle Monje of Stanford University leads this trial. Dr. Monje is a leader in the field and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2021.
October 2022: The Marit Swenson Shining Light Foundation joined DDRFA DIPG/DMG Research Funding Alliance in 2022. This collaborative effort gave over $1,000,000 to 8 research projects in 2022. The Shining Light Foundation gave $5,000 to the research of Dr. Erin Gibson of Stanford University for her research on glial cells, the circadian clock, and potential brain tumor treatments.
November 2022: The third Marit Mary Swenson Award for Pediatric DMG/DIPG Research was given to Dr. Charles Day at the 2022 Society of Neuro Oncology meeting in Tampa, Florida. The research awarded was titled "CCRG-02 - The diffuse midline glioma mutations, H3.3 K27M and G34R/V, inhibit mitotic phosphorylation of Serine 31, leading to tumor formation through increased chromosomal instability"
2021
September 2021: $7,586.35 grant to the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health for the GD2 CAR T Cells in Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas(DIPG) & Spinal Diffuse Midline Glioma(DMG) clinical trial which Dr. Michelle Monje of Stanford University is co-leading.
November 2021: Marit Mary Swenson Award for Pediatric DMG/DIPG Research awarded to Robert Siddaway, PhD from Hawkins Lab affiliated with The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto Canada for his research and abstract titled "Oncohistone interactome profiling uncovers mechanisms of chromatin disruption and identifies potential therapeutic targets in pediatric high-grade glioma"
June 2021: Marit Mary Swenson Award for Pediatric DMG/DIPG Research Award was not given due to COVID-related reasons at the Biennial Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Research conference.
2020
November 2020: Marit Mary Swenson Award for Pediatric DMG/DIPG Research awarded to Charles Day, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Minnesota/Mayo Clinic and colleagues James Robinson and Edward 'Ted' Hinclilffe of The Hormel Institute for their research and abstract titled "Suppression of histone H3.3 mitotic phosphorylation drives development of H3K27M-mutant diffuse midline gliomas"
*** The Swenson Family also personally gives out an annual Marit Mary Swenson Memorial Scholarship to a graduating senior from Mounds View High School in Arden Hills, Minnesota and supports the girls tennis program at the school. The family also supports the Ronald McDonald House Charities - Upper Midwest, Ronald McDonald House near Lurie Children's, Chicago and Wishes and More, all in memory of Marit Mary Swenson.
Before 2020
In 2019, Jennifer ran the New York City Marathon and raised over $50,000 for the National Brain Tumor Society.
People Magazine, the Today Show and local news outlets carried the story.
